Intrepid reporter-researcher Tiffany Stanley is at the Values Voter Summit and is reporting on some of the speeches. You will not be surprised to learn that "thoughtfulness" is not one of the values that the Values Voters value.
Mike Huckabee, for instance, is still recycling some of his 2008 material:
I don’t know about you but I hope that Jeremiah Wright looks out his window on November 2 and finally sees those chickens come home to roost. ...
We have a President that has never run so much as a lemonade stand or snow-cone machine, and we nominated him to the Presidency.
"Nominated," eh? Meanwhile, here are his thoughts on health care:
And it’s sounds so warm to say, we’re not going to deny anyone based on a preexisting condition. I think that sounds terrific, but I’m going to ask you something. Suppose you apply that principle to insurance.
I would like you give a call your insurance agent for your car and say, "Insure my car." "Well, tell me about your car." "Well, it was a pretty nice vehicle until my 16-year-old boy wrecked it yesterday, but I’d like to insure it so we can get it replaced. …How much would a policy cost if it covered everything?"
Huckabee seems not to understand that this is either an argument for an individual mandate, which prevents people from going without insurance until they get sick, or an argument against applying private insurance to health care. It's not a terribly effective metaphor for preserving a system in which people who acquire a dangerous medical condition can never buy individual health insurance again.
Jim Inhofe, meanwhile, keeps harping on a defense bill coming up on Tuesday that includes Don't Ask, Don't Tell stuff. He keeps talking about "open gay activities" or "open gay situation" in the military.
Michele Bachmann, who is wasting her brilliant legal mind in the House of Representatives, appears upset by the term "negative rights":
It wasn’t long ago that our President referred to these rights as negative rights, because they negate the powers of big government.
We need this woman on the Supreme Court.